April 12, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

There is a "very credible" threat of Iranian retaliatory strikes against Israel, the White House said Friday, as US President Joe Biden receives constant updates on the situation from his national security team. 

“We’re watching this very, very closely,” said national security spokesperson John Kirby, who declined to provide information about the expected timing of the threat.

But he said US officials were in “constant communication” with their Israeli counterparts about the matter and that steps were underway to ensure Israel is able to defend itself.

He pointed to a visit to Israel on Friday by US Central Command chief Gen. Michael Kurilla to have “those conversations directly with his (Israel Defense Forces) counterparts.” Biden is also receiving briefings multiple times a day on the situation, Kirby said.

“He has made it clear to the entire national security team that that we will take seriously our commitments to the defense, the self-defense of Israel,” Kirby said.

The US is also assessing its own posture in the region ahead of the potential retaliatory attack, he added.

US markets react: US stocks slid and oil prices spiked Friday morning, in part due to worries on Wall Street about escalating tensions in the Middle East.

CNN's Krystal Hur contributed reporting to this post.

A surgeon who visited Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza after Israeli forces laid siege to the complex for two weeks said valuable medical resources were destroyed.

Dr. Athanasios Gargavanis recalled the scale of material destruction wrought in the wake of the attack, including an oxygen plant, a CT scan and laboratory equipment.

The specialized surgical buildings was blown out from the basement to the second floor, the World Health Organization doctor said, adding further assessment by an engineer would determine whether the buildings could be restored. 

Health workers in Gaza have claimed that Israeli forces killed hundreds of Palestinians and left their bodies to decompose during their two-week siege of the complex in March. 

The world saw for the first time the full scale of the destruction left by Israeli forces on Al-Shifa when footage of the complex emerged on April 1 — the day that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed its withdrawal from the hospital.  

The IDF claimed “hundreds of terrorists were killed or captured” during the two-week siege. CNN cannot independently verify the IDF's statement.

Israeli troops killed two Hamas members — Muhammad Essam Shahmawi and Muhammad Omar Daraghmeh — in a raid on the city of Tubas in the occupied West Bank overnight Thursday into early Friday morning, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials.

The IDF described Daraghmeh as “a central figure in the region and in recent months planned significant terror attacks against Israel.” Israeli forces "located weapons in his vehicle... and confiscated them," the IDF added. CNN cannot independently verify statements from the Israeli military.

At least three other people were injured from live bullet rounds, including one who is in critical condition, the Palestine Red Crescent Society told CNN. Israeli gunfire targeted a PRCS ambulance, the organization added.

“A volunteer paramedic sustained bruises as a result of severe beating, after he was arrested from inside a Red Crescent ambulance,” the PRCS said.

Video of the Israeli incursion obtained by CNN shows a plume of smoke indicating an explosion, and sounds of gunfire in the area. Others show hundreds of people participating in a funeral procession for Daraghmeh Friday morning, carrying his casket with a Palestinian flag draped over it.

Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 462 Palestinians and injured about 4,700 people in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah.

At least 29 people were killed and dozens more were injured after an Israeli airstrike early Friday targeted a house belonging to the well-known Al-Tabatibi family in eastern Gaza City, according to a local health official. Last month, an Israeli airstrike struck a residential block in central Gaza, killing 35 members of the Al-Tabatibi family.

Another airstrike later targeted an apartment building on nearby Yaffa Street, injuring at least three people, Mohammad Ghirabah, an emergency doctor at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, told CNN.

Video of the aftermath shot for CNN shows crushed cars and piles of rubble covering several hollowed buildings.

"We were asleep and then all of a sudden we heard screams and disturbances. Women and children (were) thrown on the street in the middle of the night at 3 a.m.," said Ziad Dardis, a neighbor.

"They gave us no pre-warning of the strike. The majority of those killed were women and children. This is the pinnacle of all crimes. They are taking revenge on our people,” Mahmoud Al-Nounou, another neighbor, added.

CNN cannot independently verify claims about the strike or casualties due to lack of access to the strip. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment but have not yet received a response. 

Khader Al-Za’anoun of Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, contributed reporting.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is convening the war cabinet and senior defense officials on Friday afternoon local time (9:30 a.m. ET) to discuss "Israel's readiness for an Iranian response," an Israeli official with knowledge of the matter told CNN.

US and Israeli leaders said they were preparing for a potential retaliation by Iran or its proxies after a deadly Israeli attack on its embassy compound in Syria last week killed top Iranian commanders.

Diplomats have warned that Israel's war in Gaza could spill into the wider region.

The Israeli military says a relief convoy entered the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday through a new crossing from Israel for the first time as human rights organizations warn famine is imminent.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered through “the new Northern Crossing," the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, without specifying its location. CNN has asked the IDF and Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) for the location of the crossing and the number of trucks that crossed into Gaza.

The aid delivery was coordinated by the IDF and COGAT “as part of efforts to enhance the humanitarian aid corridors to the Gaza Strip in general, and to the north in particular,” according to the IDF. The trucks had undergone security checks at the Kerem Shalom crossing and were accompanied by IDF troops, the military added.

Accusations of war crimes: Famine is imminent in northern Gaza where 70% of the population are already suffering with catastrophic levels of hunger, a UN-backed report said last month, as the EU’s top diplomat accused Israel of using “starvation as a weapon of war.”

CNN previously reported on how dates — a rich source of nutrients desperately needed by a hungry population — are among the most common items most frequently rejected by Israeli authorities. Israel insists there is “no limit” on the amount of aid that can enter the strip, but its inspection regime means relief is barely trickling in.

A doctor who visited Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza recalled shocking scenes of open spaces filled with graves after an Israeli siege in March turned the complex into "dust and rubble."

Dr. Athanasios Gargavanis painted a horrifying picture of the scenes at the medical facility in Gaza City following a World Health Organization-led mission on April 5 to assess the extent of destruction.

Gargavanis, a WHO surgeon, said he counted the remains of eight bodies — although he could not give a total figure as other remains were buried under plastic sheets.

Allegations of mass graves: Earlier this week, health workers told CNN they exhumed the first corpses from mass graves in and around Al-Shifa hospital following the Israeli military's deadly 14-day siege that witnesses and Palestinian officials say left bodies strewn across the complex.

Determining the precise number of people killed is difficult, Gaza’s Civil Defense said, because Israeli troops had buried bodies inside and around the complex and bulldozed nearby roads.

Israel has for years claimed that Hamas fighters are sheltering in mosques, hospitals and other civilian places to avoid Israeli attacks. Hamas has repeatedly denied the claims.

France urged its citizens to “absolutely refrain” from traveling to Iran, Lebanon, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories on Friday, as world leaders warned of ramped up regional tensions stoked by Israel's war in Gaza.

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne issued new guidance over the risk of "military escalation" after a crisis meeting, the country's Foreign Ministry said in a post on X.

Families of diplomatic staff in the Iranian capital Tehran are set to return to France, and civil servants will be banned from work missions to those countries and territories. 

Indian advisory: The Indian government on Friday also advised its citizens not to travel to Iran and Israel, India’s foreign ministry announced in a statement.

Diplomats on high alert: It comes as US and Israeli leaders said they were bracing for a potential retaliation by Iran or its proxies after a deadly Israeli attack on its embassy compound in Syria last week killed top Iranian commanders.

A forthcoming Iranian attack was a major topic of discussion on US President Joe Biden’s phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday. As of Friday, the two governments did not know when or how Iran planned to strike back, a senior administration official told CNN.

This post has been updated with the advisory from the Indian government.

CNN's MJ Lee, Jennifer Hansler and Aishwarya S Iyer contributed reporting to this post.

Indonesia has "no plan to establish diplomatic relations with Israel," state media agency Antara has reported, citing the Foreign Ministry.

The statement came hours after two Israeli officials told CNN that Israel and Indonesia had been holding discussions to normalize relations over the past three months.

Indonesia's Foreign Ministry has not responded to CNN's inquiry about those discussions. 

Iqbal said that Indonesia would be "consistent" and "on the front line to defend the rights of the Palestinian nation," according to the state media report.

Some background: The establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel is a precondition for Muslim-majority Indonesia’s entry into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) — a group of the world's biggest economies that Jakarta is seeking to join.

Iqbal said that Indonesia would have to undergo a long process before being accepted into the OECD, beginning next May, according to the state media report.